This particular threat is a lot more insidious. Tech protection doesn't work; the exploit is in the firmware and behaves just like legitimate devices. USB is meant to work this way.
And good practices aren't much help, either, because USB is ubiquitous, and this could be a problem with anything — a thumb drive, a full-fledged USB storage device, a phone, a keyboard, a mouse, a charger, a charging station, a cable — pretty much anything that plugs into your USB port could be rigged to use this exploit.
So, ultimately, there's no defense, as things go now. Really. I mean, don't stop doing the things you do now (see (a) and (b)), but until someone comes up with a much more clever way of detecting things doing what they are supposed to be doing but for bad ends, there's not much to be done.
And, yes, this is something that could be used most obviously by hackers or other miscreants of various sorts. It's also clearly something that could be done by a government, a corporation, or anyone else. Sleep tight!
Reshared post from +Les Jenkins
Well, this is very concerning indeed.
This thumbdrive hacks computers. “BadUSB” exploit makes devices turn “evil”
Researchers devise stealthy attack that reprograms USB device firmware.